Shelley Has The Need For Speed
A chat with Corrie’s Shelley King
At 64 she’s certainly no boy racer, but CoronationStreet’s Shelley King finds there’s no better way to relax than getting behind the wheel of one of her favourite classic cars.
“I’m a petrol head! I like speed and driving fast – it excites me,” grins the actress, who plays restaurant owner Yasmeen Metcalfe. “I have a 1969 Mercedes Pagoda called Eunice Evelyn after my mother, I have a Porsche Carrera 4GTS called HTK after my dad and I have a rare Clio 182 Trophy Sport called Archie Boy after my dog. I love them all.
“I had a beautiful Porsche 933, but it was very low and I had to give it up after a back operation for a slipped disc. I would have even more cars if I had somewhere to put them!”
Such is Shelley’s passion for speed that she admits her social life ends up taking a back seat when the Grand Prix season gets under way.
“I love watching Formula One. When there’s a race on television I don’t talk to people,” she laughs.
“I don’t answer the phone either. I really look forward to it – the races are a good escape from my storyline, which has absorbed me.”
Shelley is referring to the harrowing coercive control storyline, which has seen Yasmeen slowly but surely handing over all control of her life to her scheming husband Geoff.
Coercive control, which became illegal in England and Wales in 2015, involves the perpetrator humiliating, intimidating and frightening their t victim, isolating them from f support and depriving them of their independence.
Viewers have watched in horror at the abuse, which has seen Geoff lock a terrified Yasmeen in his magician’s magic box and even kill her pet chicken and serve it up to her for dinner before revealing the truth.
Geoff has also done his best to isolate her from her granddaughter Alya, who is determined to free Yasmeen from his clutches and make her realise the truth about his behaviour – as well as exposing his past.
“Alya reports Geoff to the police and Yasmeen is furious,” Shelley says. “She feels that Geoff is all she has. And that’s what it’s about – two people who are actually co-dependent on each other.
“Yasmeen is on her own, she’s completely isolated and has lost all her confidence. She will say to herself – didI do wrong? Did I drive him to kill the chicken? Was I caring so much about the chicken andignoringhim?”
Shelley, who lives in London and Manchester with her wife Trilby James, an actor and theatre director, has won acclaim for her powerful performances. However she reveals that the upsetting nature of the story makes it tiring to film.
“You have to draw on your emotional memory in a very direct way,” she explains.
“That can be draining and you take it home with you. I try not to, but you can’t help but be affected by it. Your body thinks it’s real.”
Trilby regularly watches the show with Shelley and often casts a professional eye over her performance.
“She’s actually been a great help, she’s a wonderful director and actor herself,” Shelley says proudly. “I’m
quite strong on screen and she’s stressed that I should be natural and vulnerable in certain scenes.
“Sometimes we have a row about it and I’ll say, ‘You go and bloody do it if you think you know best!’ Then she says I’m being like Geoff!”
Shelley, who was born in Calcutta, set her heart on becoming an actress aged six, after seeing MyFairLady with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison on a visit to London in 1961. The family moved to London when she was 10 and in the late 1970s she landed a role in the popular BBC medical drama series Angels, where she stayed for two years.
As well as appearing in shows from Tandoori
Nights to Casualty and SilentWitness, Shelley has also established herself as a versatile and talented theatre actress. Her theatre work has taken her around the world, including stints working in Athens and Thessaloniki.
“I go to Greece every year,” she says. “I love it. I adore Greek theatre, the food and I love driving round it.”
Shelley puts her passion for motoring down to her father Kelly, a respected photographer in India.
“He loved cars,” she recalls with a smile. “On my Twitter account there’s a picture of me in a Studebaker aged five, wearing a little red chauffeur’s hat.
“When my dad died and I sold his house I bought my first classic car; the smell of it reminded me of him.”